Guide Report: San Ignacio lagoon, March 27, 2016

Changes

By Lorna Hill

27^th March 2016                  

Things are starting to feel different here now. Spring has well and truly sprung; the days are warmer and longer, the Osprey chicks have hatched, the baby whales are very big and strong now, almost ready for their journey North.

We are still experiencing great interaction from the mothers and babies that remain but there is even a different feeling with them now. Like a feeling of movement, fluidity, a change …..

We have with us this week another form of parent and child union and that is Rodrigo with his son, Andres, who has come to visit us for the week. It is Easter Sunday and they have spent the morning together doing Father and Son things… what exactly might those activities be? Like the whales, we never really know what they get up to when we are not there; we only experience the time when we are there, and the rest is up to them. Sometimes though, we might come across a mother showing her calf how to feed from the mud below. We know this because as they come to the surface, there are long trails of mud flowing from their baleen, a giveaway that they were rooting around in the mud below looking for food.

 Another sight we might behold is a baby learning to spyhop or breach. As they are not as strong as their Mother just yet and their flukes can’t quite propel them out of the water at the right speed, it becomes more like a spyhop mixed with a breach, or a “baby breach” as we like to call it, which actually looks more like a belly-flop! Either way, it is a beautiful sight to see as you know that the babies are learning every day how to do these important things, ready for when they have to tackle the world on their own. 

I did catch manage to catch Rodrigo and Andres hanging out together after the morning walk, Rodrigo showing Andres how to find clams in the sand and then how to open and eat them…. Like all parent and child relationships, it is a time for learning, bonding and caring… something that is really nice to be able to experience and capture.

Happy Easter!

Guide Rodrigo receives a visit from his son